Alastair had settled in for the night on a hay mat next to Farmer One. They had eaten another meal of beans, although with some steamed vegetables alongside it, outside as the stars came out, and Alastair realized that he hadn’t paid attention to the sky since he’d been stuck in the game, probably because of the constant rain in the city.

  He had found the two cats today and was somewhat amused at the flower theme names so far, which at least bore some amount of foresight on the developers’ part compared to the scatter plot of names and types found in W. Shilgrave. It was a struggle to not contact Flor as he closed his eyes, but the work alongside Farmer One had worn out his muscles and his mind. The puzzles associated with the farm work were all relatively simple, and hadn’t paid well, but felt rewarding in hindsight.

  The gentle sounds through the farm were relaxing, and Alastair fell deep asleep.

  A loud bell rang out through the silence. “FIRE! All hands to bear! FIRE!”

  Alastair was jerked awake, thinking he must have just been down for a moment, but realizing it must have been a couple of hours. Farmer One grabbed his shoulder and pulled him along.

  “This way, man. We have to assist!”

  As Alastair exited the simple barracks, he recognized it was much brighter than it should be. He and Farmer One ran toward the glow, where Arnar Mattias - Farmer 3 was organizing people into fire crews. Several men and women were pulling out a pump from a shed and running lines down to the duck pond and along toward the butterfly garden.

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  Alastair realized that he was about fully useless in this situation unless someone directed him to do something specific. Farmer One had gone to put on some thicker clothes and went toward the pump, where he seemed to wait for a signal then started to adjust some settings then charged the pump. After a moment, several others had gotten the front end of the hose, another signal was passed, and Farmer One started to pump strongly and consistently. Water pressure built up and passed through and the hose team directed the water toward the conflagration, which looked like it was spreading from the butterfly garden outward.

  The fire team worked continuously. It seemed like every person on the farm was out. Additional pumps and fire teams came to assist, but the sky continued to lighten with the fire. The fire spread from the butterfly garden out toward the barns and sheds.

  Alastair helped set up a drinking water station for those coming off the hoses since they seemed to be sweating buckets. He looked to help where he could but realized there wasn’t much he was trained to do.

  The hose teams shifted from the butterfly garden toward the barns and shed. It seems as if several additional people had shown up. When he took a moment to look, Alastair realized they were monks and clerics, and must have come from the monastery.

  The only two people Alastair didn’t see were Mihaela and Traian. He had no clue where they were, but recognized their absence was probably expected.

  After what seemed like hours, Alastair glanced at his interface clock. It was almost four hours after they had set the fire alarm, and although the fire remained in places, it was out at most.

  Farmer Arnar had started sending teams to rotate to rest. He gave Alastair a curt nod of thanks. Alastair wasn’t sure what for. Arnar directed Alastair back to the barracks. It was a polite dismissal, but also perhaps an acknowledgment that attempting to help HAD helped, even if he couldn’t any further. Regardless, Alastair took the hint and was back asleep on his hay mat in a moment.